James Tobin <[log in to unmask]> wishes to help me get my Bartok problem
out in the open.  I am grateful for your concern but I am past the point
of being curable.  You see, when I was appointed to be the Hungaroton
agent in UK (c.1982) I was given lots of stuff to listen to and, at their
request/suggestion I started a serious attempt to get together with Bartok.

As my search for something that might please me, or interest me, became
more and more fruitless I got more and more irritated so now I only hear
the Quartets (for example) as resembling a cat fight on a tin roof.  I last
took the 6 of them on a very long flight (when you could take CD players
aloft) to have a really good go at trying to get through to them, but I
fell asleep (in self defence!).  So, sorry, even Gergiev conducting one of
the piano concertos in Amsterdam (c.1993) failed to improve matters (and,
please, nobody say...  what about Bluebeard? Can't abide that either).

Chris Bonds <[log in to unmask]> suggests that my Janacek Sinfonietta
problem is due to my body vibrating in <b flat>.  I'll ask the quack next
time I see him!  But, once again, it wasn't help or diagnosis I sought,
it was to ask if anyone else had bad vibes with any other openings.

But a much more rewarding thread (Don's?) is that of magnificent openings.

I give you, gentlemen, Tristan Act 3 (one of my 8 desert island discs) but
only if the conductor gets the double bass line firmly articulated (Stokey
or Bohm for me).

John G. Deacon
Home page: www.ctv.es/USERS/j.deacon